Moment: Cut Screen Time Reviews

by Bertonski

I really want to use Moment to decrease my time playing games or surfing the web. The problem is Moment tracks ALL screen time and I use my phone a lot during the day for business (QuickBooks and email etc), I use fitness tracking apps for running, listen to self-help books in the car with Audible, and in the evening I will watch Netflix on my phone instead of traditional TV. I set Moment to give me reminders for when I’ve been on too long because I want the reminders to tell me when I’m wasting time playing a game or surfing the web, but I don’t want the reminders when I’m working with clients, engaging in healthy activities, or watching a show! Very annoying and the only thing I can do is change my notifications before each app I use, which is time-consuming and unrealistic. It’s my understanding from the developer there’s no way to distinguish screen time by app when the phone is being actively used (apps can be removed from reporting) so I removed it from my phone because it just can’t do what I need it to do. I need it to only be “on” for certain apps and right now that seems impossible. Also separately I appreciate how candid the developer is about privacy but I don’t like how invasive Moment is with tracking. If it did everything that worked for me I’d be more likely to trade-off with trust but not for what it is right now.

by Jojo12340

Moment is a great idea and I would love if it worked. This first week or so I used Moment , it would track my usage well, but then it started to lose my trust. The amount of time I spent on my phone started to grow a ton even though I felt like I was using my phone the same amount. I checked the usage (or whatever it’s called) tab in Moment and the numbers the time it said I was using it throughout the day didn’t add up. For instance I would do the math based on what it said my pickups and usage time was and it would come out to more than an hour under what the overall total was. In my mind, I was like this makes sense they’re trying to sell a product that makes you decrease your phone usage, or at least makes you feel like you are decreasing your phone usage, so it makes sense to inflate the numbers to then just show the actual numbers once people buy the premium product or whatever it’s called. Now, I didn’t wanna just leave it at that, I wanted to be thorough, so I tracked my phone usage myself and compared it to Moment ’s purported usage and my hypothesis was correct and Moment inflated your usage. Its too bad the developers have chosen to inflate the numbers, I think this is a great idea with great potential to actually help people use their phones less and connect with people around them more, but it’s part of a business model and has to make a profit so I understand why they have made the choices they have.

by Steadierfooting

I paid for the premium version so that I could exclude specific apps from my total usage. On any given day, I might need to use Waze or Google Maps for up to 3 hours during an inter-office commute, two different fitness apps during a 60+ minute workout, the Podcast app during my commute and a meditation app. What I wanted to track and cut down on was mindless FB/Twitter scrolling.

Unfortunately Moment ’s limitations render it not terribly helpful. Moment can’t tell what app you’re using in real time so it sounds its alarm as soon as you hit your max time and continues to do so until the end of the day which is super annoying during a commute or workout or worse during meditation. In order to get accurate stats on usage you have to take a screenshot of battery usage every morning. Then Moment will exclude specified apps from the total usage. Mildly helpful but also data I can gather on my own just from looking at the battery usage. I tried closing Moment so it would stop tracking (and thus stop sending a notification) during a workout but the alarm still went off.

If you’re not someone who needs to use their phone for specific tasks throughout the day, Moment will likely be helpful. Otherwise, it may end up another aggravation in your day.

by Rach_1

Unfortunately Moment does not do what it says it will do. The first week or so it worked somewhat. But after I bought premium it started inaccurately tracking time spent on the phone. I was on my phone at midnight and by 12:30 it said I had already been on my phone an hour and a half that day, when there had only been 30 minutes in the day! This is a trend I am noticing. It monitors time incorrectly. It also is very finicky when it comes to tracking app usage. For instance, you can take the battery screenshot like it says each week, but I have only had it actually translate the screenshot correctly into actual usage one time. Ever since then it has said the report is ready, but it was blank, it does not actually work. And even if it did work, it is basically just taking the information your phone already tracks and putting it in a different format. Not worth it.

This would be a great app if it worked and didn’t give you false data and was able to do what it says.

I would not recommend downloading Moment or upgrading, it really isn’t worth it for the false information you get.

by Needsnewbrain

I just woke up a half hour ago and I got a reminder that I've been on my phone for four hours. Yesterday I got an alert that I got my daily limit, which I put at 23 hours and 50 minutes around the time I was leaving work, at which point there had not been that many hours in the day. I put it that high because the day before I'd "hit my limit" of ten hours before the phone had been on for six hours. I don't know what the problem is, but it doesn't seem to be what the developer has patiently explained to everyone else who has complained. The idea is good, the implementation is not. Moment did teach me, however, that most of what I wanted to know I can find in the battery section of settings, (by tapping on the clock icon next to battery usage by app), the iPhone already tells me what I bought Moment for! Built in for free!
Goodbye this app, I really wanted you to work, but you have been frustrating and obnoxious, and increased my screen time because I was searching everywhere for an explanation and a fix that fit my experience.

by Leighbell

I LOVE the idea of Moment, but I can say with absolute confidence that it’s not working. When I look at my screen time, it shows specific things like the time I supposedly started using my phone, and then how long I was looking at it for. Except, there are multiple instances where I know for certain that wasn’t the case. For example, one day it said I started using it at 1:30, and then was using it for THREE HOURS. But I was hanging out with friends, talking, for the entire time. I checked the time exactly twice while I was with them. Another time it showed that I was using the phone for a two hour block when I was watching a movie with a friend. And so on.

I’m really disappointed. I think I use my phone less than the average, but I was really hoping to get some concrete information to either verify that or show me I needed to work on it. I guess if I go to the trouble of reading Moment ’s time estimates and subtract the times I feel sure about, I might get a decent picture. But there’s definitely something wonky in Moment .

by MiralMS

Installed Moment on the advice of a friend who was really surprised when its features revealed how much screen time she was spending every day. Figured I could also benefit from something like that, so I installed it 3 months ago. Definitely made me realize I need to cut down on browsing aimlessly, but there are problems. For one, it’s not been very accurate in counting the minutes at least half a dozen times. (Sometimes it strangely fails to record time spent online). Got the updated version a few days ago, and it was really intrusive. The alerts that pop up by default were needlessly frequent & filled with language that made me feel like a 5 year old. I changed their frequency in the settings after a day of this moralizing tone. Interface text sounds pretty much the same—annoying as heck, especially when it constantly asks to be enabled to access Settings to connect to certain apps to collect more specific information about where you need to reduce screen time.

Ultimately, I’m glad I have Moment to check in occasionally to figure out when I need to log off. If you are one of those who are on some higher mission to attain great mindfulness, you can probably tolerate Moment much better. I’m just not looking for that myself. I have meditation apps, and I just need to use this one as a simple counter.

by Hamsters4life

In the beginning, Moment was really nice and I felt like it was helping me reduce my screen time as promised. It said that I could just pay $3.00 for premium and also support them so I did.

HOWEVER, Moment got a new update, and it got more courses which I was excited about, but they decided that they wanted people to pay subscriptions for their app now. One the major reasons I liked Moment was because it was so simple and wasn’t constantly telling to pay. But now, it turned into one of those apps that wants you to pay for a subscription even though wanting to reduce your screen time and make your life better as a whole, should not require you to pay every month/year. I’m fine with a one time payment to support this app, but if you needed more money couldn’t you just make the one time payment a little more?

I really like Moments goal, but this just makes me mad, I know you have to make money, but this is annoying. Thanks for reading.

by CH718

At 8:15AM, I got an alert that I had been on my phone for over 9 hours already today. 1st off, that’s not physically possible. And during the time I have been up (since 5AM), I have journaled, meditated, worked out, and made kids lunches....none of which required my phone. This is a daily occurrence. This is my 2nd time trying Moment and it seems to be worse instead of better.
I have told it to ignore my Sleep Cycle app. It doesn’t. I have tried locking my phone after starting Sleep Cycle for the night, but then Sleep Cycle crashes intermittently (their problem, not this app’s). But this app should ignore that app since I have set it to do so. Inaccurate tracking kind of defeats the purpose. I like that I can see app usage, because I can then figure out actual times and act accordingly, but the notifications or shutting down access after my time limit is up is useless since it tells me I am over my limit before I am even out of bed yet.

by Nikkie Z

Love Moment and I recommend it. The free version is great and simple. But I upgraded and also like the features in the upgrade - it was worth it for me. I like that I can see not just how much time I'm wasting but also where (in which apps). Now there's just one thing that I really wish could be improved... on the home screen you see how much time you spent on he phone each day and it's a horizontal bar graph with bars colored red yellow or green depending on whether you spent a ton of time on your phone (red) or just a bit (green). But! Here's the issue... if you go over your limit your bar is just the width of the screen so you don't see a visual of ***how far*** beyond the limit you are. I recommend make g the bars visually proportional to the hours you spend, making the scale from let's say 0-15 (for those who have a serious problem). I say this because my limit is 2 hours but I am often over, and on my screen I see the same red bar whether I get 2.5 or 7 hours and it's not motivating. If I could see incremental improvements in the bars, it would help. Thanks for considering this change!! #rantover

by John Markos O'Neill

It was tracking app usage for me, and I accidentally chose 24 hours instead of 10 days, and it notified me of my error. After I fixed the error and took 10 day screen shots, it kept notifying me and wouldn’t stop, even after I deleted the offending 24 hour screenshots. I can’t have an app notifying me every minute, so I turned off notifications for this app. Normally, I would contact the developer directly about this bug, but Moment has a notice that the developer doesn’t do tech support.

I would give a 5 star review if this bug were fixed, but it’s a critical issue. It’s untenable to have an app notifying the user every minute for a fixed user error.

Update: looking through the reviews, I see that other people have noticed the same issue. It seems to be caused by the fact that Apple’s battery settings no longer have a 7 day option. The developer has not released a fix despite this change having been out for a while. Given the lack of response from the developer to a serious bug, I’m lowering my rating to two stars.

Update (Nov. 19, 2018): the new version fixes this bug, so I’m tentatively going up to 4 stars, and May raise my rating after further use of the new version.

Update (Mar. 27, 2019) it’s still having a problem with durations. I just got a new phone, and it asked me for 10-day pictures, so I took what was available, 7-day pictures. this app complained that I had selected the wrong duration, but 10-day pictures were unavailable.

by Chelseacham

Love the idea of Moment ...it’s so easy to pick up our phones out of boredom, but it’s crazy how quickly that time adds up! It helps you stay a little more mindful about whether or not to do something on your phone, or choose to do something more productive. 3 things I’ve noticed:
1. If you have turned off your phone at any point, the screenshot of the 7 day battery usage will not work. It will only show the number of consecutive days your phone has been on. Not sure if I would still get same results if I screenshot 3 days of battery usage?
2. Is there any way to exclude certain apps from the total usage? A lot of times I will listen to music on my phone while I’m at work, but I really just turn it in and have it playing, but I think the time it is playing counts for phone usage, or if I switch songs etc. I’m more interested in the time I’m actually on my phone.
3. It would be cool if Moment could detect when you are driving and have a specific section for app usage while driving...or even have the capability to block you from using your phone (except maps maybe?)...or play a really annoying sound when you try to use your phone while driving? :)

Hope that makes sense, thanks for making Moment , I think it’s really important for us to be more conscious of our screen time!!

by RykerH

I have absolutely loved this application and it has saved me so much time. I went from using my phone for roughly three hours a day down to less than an hour a day. Some days, I’ll even use my phone for less than 20 minutes. The iPhone Bootcamp in Premium is especially challenging, but very much worth it if you’re serious about cutting down your screen time. It took me a couple tries to finally complete it 100%.

I was wondering if a feature could be developed to turn off apps after a certain amount of time. Example: I use Instagram for business so I need to have it on my phone; however, after I have completed what I need to accomplish on Moment , I tend to keep scrolling through it and waste a lot of time. I can’t delete it, because it is kind of a necessary evil for my photography side hustle. If I could set a 15 minute limit specifically for that app, that would be amazing. Ideally, this app would close Moment for me after that amount of time has passed and not let me in it for the rest of the day. Is that possible?

Even if the feature can’t be made, I wanted to thank you for this application. I’ve found myself to be more intentional toward people and the daily situations I’m in since I downloaded it and I can’t thank you enough for that.

by Ellyseisawesome

this app has dramatically improved the quality of my life. I found myself frustrated with my phone usage and one day I googled “How to use your phone less” and this app was the first thing to come up and I remember on the first day of the 14 day bootcamp when it asked me not to use my phone for 30 minutes, it was so much harder than I had anticipated. Over time, it got easier and easier. By the cold turkey day at the end of the course I was so proud to say that I had used my phone for less than 2 minutes that day. During the course there was a day that I was at a doctors office in the waiting room and I noticed after about 15 minutes of waiting, I hadn’t touched my phone once. I had just been observing my surroundings and lost in thought. It made me so happy! I use my phone to communicate, and to keep notes and use basic resources, but I don’t waste my time. My life is so much more organized, I am so much happier, I sleep better, I read more, I take better care of myself, and most of all I am present in my day-to-day life.

If you're looking for a catalyst to a better, happier, more productive life, this app is the place to start.

by Carlros6

I know it’s a big clam but i really think it’s the best purchase I’ve done! Most of us are not even aware of our addiction, being stuck to our phones for hours. Time flies by us and we don’t even notice. We don’t even know we are alive! The technology has been working against us when it comes to this. We spend time with our loved ones in the same house and we don’t even know they are there. When they pass away, sometimes we can’t even remember much of our time together because we were paying too much attention to our phones. It’s just a sad reality and “this app” has helped me so much to keep my phone away and use it when it’s truly necessary. Apart from the new iPhone upgrade that gives you feature to track your screen time. But Moment having exercises to help stay away from your phone just makes it stand out so much! If you think or know that you are addicted to your phone, then make the purchase. Do it for yourself and do it for your loved ones!